Isaac must be well over 75 by now and goes to live in the kingdom of King Abimelech, the same king who Abraham deceived earlier and who may have been Isaac's real father. And so they inquire of Isaac and Rebekah when they arrive...
Gen 26 7.And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.
8.And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech, King of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
9.And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife; and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.
Like father, like son. Obviously the human intellect was not well developed in those days. If this was the same Abimelech Abraham duped, then he is a very old man by now. And if it is the same Abimelech, he was twice duped with the same scam. And once again Abimelech continues as though it was his fault...
Gen 26 10.And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.
This sad story for a spiritual journey continues as Rebekah and her younger son Jacob conspire to dupe Isaac after he is nearly blind. Genesis 27 tells us it is OK to use treachery and politics to gain our ultimate goals. We are left to suppose God supports such behavior as he does not intervene.
Gen 28 1.And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
Divisiveness is more and more becoming the theme attributed to God and his plan for later killing off the Canaanites.
Gen 28 2.Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughers of Laban thy mother's brother.
Here Isaac tells Jacob to find a wife among his first cousins. God encourages inbreeding among his chosen ones.
Gen 28 4.And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.
The plan God has laid out for Abraham and his descendants is simple. Breed among yourselves until you get an army, then "inherit" the land in which you are a stranger. In other words, invade the residents of the land, much like Hitler did in Europe. And in case we didn't get the message before, someone wants us to remember in the vision of Jacob's ladder...
Gen 28 13.And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
So if you don't see the plot of the Torah, yet, I'll tell you. It's all about taking the land of Canaan from the Canaanites.
In Genesis 29 and 30 Jacob gets not only his first cousin Rachel for a wife, but first he also has to marry her sister Leah. What's more, he didn't even notice that it was Leah that slept with him, instead of Rachel, until the next morning. Rachel ended up being barren, so she let Jacob have children by her sister Bilhah (who was given to Rachel as a present by her father, Laban.) Leah became jealous so she let Jabob have sex with her other sister Zilpah (who was given to her by her father as a gift.) And so they kept bearing children.
Toward the end of Genesis 30 Jacob is getting ready to move out of Rachel and Leah's father's house and has agreed to take only the animals with certain characteristics. Jacob then specifically choice bred those animals which would become his and left all of Laban's cattle to become weak. Apparently this was good before God's eyes, because it increased Jacob's wealth considerably. I can only wonder why someone could be so crafty as to take advantage of their father-in-law who is also their uncle.
Gen 31 9.Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
Now I know what God is all about. God is the unseen overseer who takes the property of others, even family members, and gives it to his chosen few. The story of Robin Hood must have been inspired from the Bible. I don't know where the story of God being a magnificent being comes from, but it sure is not in the Book of Genesis.
Later on Moses gives the commandment, "thou shalt not steal." But that doesn't apply yet, apparently. In Genesis 31 Rachel has stolen property of her father's. He tracks down Jacob and his wives and searches their tents. Rachel makes the excuse she can't get up because of womanly afflictions even though she clearly knew she was sitting on the stolen property. And it is evident Jacob knew about it, too, but he played dumb and pretended he didn't know anything about it. What a bunch of thieves and liars. These are the "chosen" ones of God. These are the people Christians, Jews and Muslims worship and remember every day. These are the people whose stories are perpetuated every day in our society.
In Genesis 32, Jacob returns to the land of Canaan. He is afraid his brother will kill him so he devises a plan to split his property such that if Esau should smite one band, the other can escape. He sends the first band ahead as a gift to Esau, then he sends off his wives. Jacob is now alone and a mystery man appears...
Gen 32 24.And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
25.And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
26.And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27.And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28.And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
And now you know how Israel got its name. It was given by a mystery man who wrestled with Jacob. And in case you're wondering why we don't eat the sinew meat...
Gen 32 32.Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.
The first battle for the land of Canaan takes place in Genesis 34. A Canaanite named Shechem and his father Hamor found one of Jacobs daughters to be fair. Shechem slept with her, and wanted to marry her. She was Dinah, and had gone among the Canaanites willfully. The sons of Jacob made a bargain, if all the men in the family of Shechem and Hamor would get circumcised, they could marry Dinah into the family. Shechem and Hamor went back to their family and convinced everyone to get circumcised so that they could be friends with Jacob's family. After all the men had been circumcised and were sore, Jacob's sons went in and murdered Shechem, Hamor and the whole family. Then they took all their animals and possessions for themselves. This, my friends, is in the Bible. This is the story of how the Nation of Israel gets born. This is the scenario that has repeated itself for thousands of years in the name of God. This is not the spiritual path I was hoping to find.
All along, Abraham, Isaac and then his grandson Jacob, were moving about from place to place. Whenever they moved it was because they perpetrated some despicable act and feared for their lives. So once again, Jacob and his clan were on the move. Their treasures were greater, they had more animals, and the animals had to eat. They moved to Bethel, in the land of Canaan.
It is also worthy to note that everywhere Abraham, Isaac and Jacob moved to, they built an alter to their God. It must have appeared to the people of Canaan that Jacob was some kind of cult leader.
Gen 35 9.And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
10.And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
Apparently God was not aware of the mystery man who already renamed Jacob during a wrestling match.
Everyone speaks of Jacob, excuse me, Israel of having had 12 sons. In fact, he had 11 sons.
Gen 35 22.And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
The twelfth son of Jacob/Israel was actually his grandson, being fathered by his son Reuben and his wife's sister/maiden Bilhah. Incest prevails in God's chosen ones.
Isaac died at the age of 180 years.